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Last month’s growth was the largest since April, when 58,200 jobs were created. March produced an even bigger number — 82,300. But those two earlier increases were seen at the time as unsustainable. Indeed, that turned out to be the case, and there were some fallow months in between.

It is a sign, economists would argue, of volatile data from number crunchers, such as Statistics Canada, and a recovery still struggling to find its footing in an unsteady — and often unpredictable — global economy.

“What you really want to look at isn’t the latest month’s number but the three-month or six-month moving average, because it actually gives you a better reading and gets away from some of the volatility,” said Craig Alexander, chief economist at TD Economics.

A closer look at the numbers shows that, when combined with 30,000 job losses recorded in July, the average monthly gain from July to September was about 19,000. The six-month average works out to 22,000 additional positions a month.

“When the economy is growing at its [sustainable] trend rate, which I think would be around 2 1/4%, we should be seeing about 20,000 to 25,000 jobs created each month. So, if we’re growing a little bit below 2%, I think it would be more consistent with something in the 15,000 to 20,000 range.”

Canada’s economy grew by an annualized 1.9% in the second quarter of this year, according revised figures released by Statistics Canada on Monday. The previous reading was 1.8%. First-quarter growth remained unchanged at 1.8%

The Bank of Canada has forecast growth above 2% in the third and fourth quarters, although most economists expect GDP will be below that target.

Friday’s labour report showed most of the 52,100 new jobs in September were full-time positions and created by the private sector.

Many of the new positions in September were in the retail and wholesale sectors, while more people also found work in construction and agriculture. However, the manufacturing and natural resources sectors shed jobs.

Mr. Porter said retail and construction “are two sectors I definitely wouldn’t read too much into.”

“Probably those two sectors will be relative laggards in the next few years, after being leaders for a period of time . . . as the housing market simmers down, and as consumer spending — I wouldn’t say retrenches — but subsidies.”

Across the country, significant job gains were limited to Ontario and Manitoba. Saskatchewan was the only province to lose workers.

Employment among youths between the ages of 15 to 24 continued to decline in September, with the jobless rate climbing to 15% from 14.8% the previous month.

But those between 25 to 54 — mostly men — filled most of the positions created last month.